The Chinese government has been so secretive about Bishop Shi’s detention that there is no certainty that he is dead.

The Catholic news agency UCANews reported the bishop’s death on Feb. 2, citing his great-niece Shi Chunyan, who said the family had been informed by a local official. But a Hong Kong-based reporter for the agency, Lucia Cheung, said that after the family approached the local authorities to recover the bishop’s remains, they were told that the official who had told them he was dead had been drunk, or misinformed.

“The public has a right to know what’s going on,” said Joseph Kung, who runs the Cardinal Kung Foundation in Stamford, Conn., named after an uncle, Ignatius Kung Pin-mei, the late bishop of Shanghai. “I am not sure whether he is alive or dead.”

[…] Ms. Cheung said Bishop Shi’s family had heard rumors as long as three years ago that he had died. “They are quite prepared to receive the news, but they at least they want to get the remains back,” she said. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/chinese-catholics-seek-answers-bishops-fate/feed/0Catholic Bishop Detained in China has Diedhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/catholic-bishop-detained-china-died/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/catholic-bishop-detained-china-died/#commentsSat, 07 Feb 2015 00:49:58 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=181149A 94-year-old Chinese bishop who had been detained in China for the past 14 years has reportedly died, the Associated Press reports:

Chinese officials informed the family of Bishop Cosmas Shi Enxiang on Jan. 30 that he had died, but didn’t say when or provide his relatives a cause of death, ucanews.com reported.

Shi was ordained in 1947, two years before officially atheistic China was founded. Shortly afterward, Chinese leader Mao Zedong demanded Chinese Catholics sever their links with the Vatican, churches were closed and, like scores of priests, Shi suffered long terms of imprisonment and hard labor between 1957 and 1980.

The Vatican secretly appointed Shi as bishop of the northern city of Yixian in 1982, but he was taken away again in 2001 and held at an undisclosed location.

[…] Ucanews.com said that with Shi’s death, Bishop James Su Zhimin of Baoding is the only remaining underground bishop still being held in secret detention. [Source]

What happened in Rome is wholly different. Unlike the US, Britain, Norway, and South Africa, among other countries, the Vatican has no economic ties with Beijing, nor does it hold security discussions with the Chinese. It is also usual for the Pope to meet the leaders of other world faiths on purely religious grounds.

What is plain is Francis’s anguish over the fate of the estimated twelve million Chinese who are Catholic and the more than three thousand Catholic priests active in China. About half of China’s Catholics are connected to one of the churches under the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), which means their bishops are appointed by employees of CPCA, which was created by the Religious Affairs Bureau of the People’s Republic; the other half are unofficial “House Christians,” who recognize the pope as their leader. Along with China’s Protestants, both groups have at best uneasy relations with the Communist leadership. Earlier this year, Catholic and Protestant churches in some regions of China were designated as “illegal structures” and demolished; in other cases in recent months, Christian religious symbols, such as crosses, have sometimes been forcibly removed.

Evidently, the Vatican understood what could happen if the Pope met “the criminal, splittist Dalai,” as he is routinely condemned by Beijing. There is always the possibility of detentions of prominent Catholics and their priests, and more punishments for Tibetan Buddhists, well-tried forms of Communist persecution. There also could be more at stake now that Beijing has signaled that it might consider improving relations with Rome. The signal seems arcane but it was understood in the Vatican. During the Pope’s visit to South Korea, for the first time a plane carrying a pope was permitted to fly through Chinese air space. In response, as he passed over China, the Pope sent a message to President Xi Jinping: “I extend the best wishes to Your Excellency and your fellow citizens, and I invoke the divine blessings of peace and well-being upon the nation.” [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/jonathan-mirsky-pope-francis-china-problem/feed/0HK Activists, Ex-Pats Say ‘Foreign Forces’ Not Behind Protestshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/hk-activists-ex-pats-say-foreign-forces-behind-protests/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/10/hk-activists-ex-pats-say-foreign-forces-behind-protests/#commentsSat, 01 Nov 2014 00:10:21 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=178713Since Occupy Central and student protesters began their ongoing round of demonstrations nearly six weeks ago, Hong Kong and central Chinese authorities (via state media) have consistently sought to blame “foreign forces” for instigating the pro-democracy protests in the semiautonomous Chinese territory. Former Hong Kong lawmaker and founding chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party Martin Lee, himself the target of similar state media attacks, denies these allegations. From Echo Hui at the LA Times:

Cina’s attempt to blame U.S. and other “foreign forces” for Hong Kong’s protests is merely a “convenient excuse” for Beijing to cover its shame for not granting the territory true democracy as it once promised, said Martin Lee, founding chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party.

[…] Lee, founder of one of Hong Kong’s largest political parties, has been singled out by China’s Communist Party for allegedly inviting outside interference in the territory’s affairs. In April, the U.S. Congress revived an annual report on political developments in Hong Kong following a plea by Lee and former Chief Secretary Anson Chan. They have since been condemned in China’s state-run media as “betraying” Hong Kong with their move.

[…] In an interview with The Times, Lee said he did travel overseas frequently to met with government officials, lawmakers, the media and Chinese communities. But he said that his message has always been defending Hong Kong’s core values and that he never accepts financial support from abroad.

“I never ask for money,” said Lee, “and even if they offer, which they haven’t, I won’t touch it. Because I know, once I touch it, they will use it against us.” [Source]

Mark Simon, the right-hand man of pro-democracy newspaper magnate Jimmy Lai, has moved his family out of Hong Kong for safety and has been pressed to deny that he is a U.S. spy.

[…] Large, loud and avowedly Republican, the 50-year-old has been portrayed across pro-Beijing media as a CIA agent – a charge also thrown at student protest leader Joshua Wong and an independent academic pollster, Robert Chung.

He’s also a proud Catholic – something that links him to Lai and many other prominent figures in the Hong Kong democracy struggle.

Simon described Lai as an instinctive backer of underdogs rather than an “egotist” who believes that he will single-handedly change China. […] [Source]

Dan Garrett, a gnarled, tattooed former Pentagon intelligence analyst, has attracted more stares than usual lately when he prowls the streets here with a camera fitted with a 300-millimeter lens, snapping images of pro-democracy demonstrations, signs and stickers.

[…] Pro-Beijing newspapers and politicians here, as well as mainland Chinese news media, have said he is [a spy], and have made him a prime exhibit in their allegations of a Western conspiracy behind the city’s political tumult.

Citing his professed past working for United States intelligence agencies, they have said Mr. Garrett has engaged in Washington-sponsored subversion, seeking to kindle a revolt against the Chinese Communist Party. The claim is part of the effort by Chinese officials and state-controlled news media to discredit Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement as an insurrection ignited from abroad.

[…] Mr. Garrett, 47, a graduate student who favors shorts, sandals and a T-shirt, says he is vexed. “This is weird at several different levels,” he said. “I am not James Bond.” [Source]

Today, China has an estimated 12 million Catholics, many of whom practice in underground churches beyond Beijing’s direct control. But around 5.3 million are represented by the 70 bishops appointed by the CPA. Catholics enjoy greater freedom than in the past, though Beijing remains wary that the church could fuel political dissent. Authorities launch periodic crackdowns involving church demolitions, beatings and imprisonment of worshipers or priests at underground churches.

The Holy See has long been anxious to settle relations in China. In a conciliatory, 55-page open letter to Chinese Catholics in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that the church had no political ambitions. […] [Source]

To begin the tour, Pope Francis flew to South Korea on Thursday, and Beijing allowed his jet to enter Chinese airspace while en route—the first time since 1989, when a request was refused. In returning what might be seen as an olive branch, Pope Francis offered his blessing to China in a telegram to Xi Jinping: “I extend my best wishes to your excellency and your fellow citizens, and I invoke divine blessings of peace and well-being upon the nation.” While the Pope commonly offers blessings to those he flies over, The Wall Street Journal explains the significance of his telegram to President Xi:

[…T]he case of China is a special one. The last time a pope traveled to East Asia, when St. John Paul II flew to the Philippines in 1995, Chinese authorities denied permission to fly over their territory, forcing the papal plane into a long detour.

This time, Beijing allowed Pope Francis to fly over China. The gesture is significant, particularly in light of the especially poor state of relations, which have hit a low in recent years after Chinese authorities placed a Catholic bishop under house arrest.

The Vatican has long been anxious to repair relations with Beijing. In its quest to spread the faith in Asia, where Catholicism today represents a tiny slice of the population, China is the big kahuna. Its huge population and the spiritual vacuum left by eroding Communist ideology are a dream for Vatican evangelists.

As a result, the dog-whistle message sent from the papal plane will surely perk up the antennae of Vatican- and China-watchers alike. [Source]

The fight between two of the world’s most hierarchical and authority-driven powers has become so fraught that, according to the Vatican, Chinese authorities have in some cases kidnapped bishops approved by Rome and pressured them into laying hands upon government-chosen bishops at their ordinations — a move meant to lend such ceremonies legitimacy despite Vatican opposition.

The Vatican also maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan, a source of anger for Beijing.

For those reasons, papal travels through the region — which in the West frequently draw huge headlines — have often been largely ignored in the Chinese news media.

But Thursday’s flyover drew plaudits in China’s state-run media.

The often-nationalistic Global Times called it a “positive development in China-Vatican relations,” but the newspaper cautioned that it would take much time for the two to establish formal diplomatic relations. […] [Source]

About half of more than 100 Chinese who had planned to attend an Asian Youth Day event during the pope’s visit are unable to attend due to “a complicated situation inside China”, Heo Young-yeop, spokesman for the Committee for the Papal Visit to Korea, told reporters.

He declined to give further details, citing their safety. Another organizer, who declined to be identified, said some of the would-be attendees had been arrested by Chinese authorities.

[…] China’s Foreign Ministry said it had “noted” the Pope’s position, and repeated its position that Beijing was sincere about wanting to improve relations with the Vatican.

We are willing to keep working hard with the Vatican to carry out constructive dialogue and push for the improvement of bilateral ties,” the ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters, but did not address the issue of Chinese barred from attending the youth event. [Source]

Lately the pace of growth has been breathtaking. The number of Christians has more than tripled since 1996 when it was estimated at 10 million. Pew Research Center puts the current population at twice that, at 60 million. And one expert, Purdue University professor Fenggang Yang, even goes so far as to predict that by 2030 China will be the largest Christian country in the world.

[…] Author and dissident Yu Jie converted around a decade ago before coming to the U.S. He traces Christianity’s rise to the bloody suppression of the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

[…] Increasing urbanization has uprooted Chinese from rural traditions while civil society is lacking in the cities, Yu said.

“Chinese people are not allowed to choose their political leader,” he said. “But they are able to select their pastors and elders in more and more churches.” [Source]

Two auxiliary bishops newly appointed by the Vatican have spoken out about the Occupy Central campaign, saying the church supports civil disobedience when it’s for the common good.

A third new auxiliary bishop meanwhile said the Hong Kong Catholic diocese had come under pressure from the government to consider shutting down its outspoken Justice and Peace Commission because it has been critical of the administration.

[…] “The church is very clear on this,” Ha said. “Civil disobedience is allowed when … the authorities – which should be acting for the common good of society according to moral principles – are not acting for the common good, or if there is an unjust law.” Lee agreed with that sentiment.

Ha also shot down a comment made last Sunday by Anglican Church Archbishop the Most Reverend Dr Paul Kwong that Hongkongers should keep quiet just as “Jesus remained silent” in the face of crucifixion.

“The Bible is very thick,” Ha said, adding that there was nothing wrong with expressing one’s views in a lawful manner. [Source]

“Jesus remained silent as a lamb. The act in itself is a ‘voice’. His ‘voice’ was not confrontational, but a peaceful, tolerating, accepting ‘voice of love’,” he wrote.

[…] He said he hoped this “approach” could inspire Christians considering how to engage with Hong Kong’s current political debates.

“What I don’t want to see most is a divided Hong Kong. I accept different political views among Christians, and I would not try to change their political stance. But [their] methods have to be legal, and with the love and humility of Christ.”

This had always been his stance regardless of his appointment to the CPPCC, he said. “The CPPCC role only allows me an opportunity to speak from another stage.” [Source]

“The few courageous [Catholics] could not meet [the Pope], and the Communist Party would show him the illegitimate bishops, including the three excommunicated ones,” the 82-year-old said in the interview.

[…] A close Western observer of the Vatican’s ties with China said he was convinced Francis was eager to visit China. For many years, the Vatican has indicated that it wanted to move its nunciature (diplomatic mission of the Holy See) from Taiwan to the mainland, the Jesuit China scholar said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He cautioned, however, that Beijing might be hesitant to receive the current pope. “Given that Francis has also been outspoken on issues of corruption and the treatment of the poor, one could see China being very wary of allowing him a microphone.” [Source]

Slightly more than 1,500 cult members have been detained and prison terms were handed out to at least 59, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was not clear when the arrests took place, although the reports said some went back as far as two years.

Reports of the detentions appeared to be an effort to reassure the public following outrage over violence and other illegal activity blamed on cult adherents.

The reports said cult members were given terms of up to four years on charges of “using a cult organisation to undermine enforcement of the law”.

Those detained were allegedly members of the Church of Almighty God and the Disciples Sect, groups drawing on an unorthodox reading of Christian scripture.

Accusations against them included using threats, violence and other illegal measures to expand their memberships and organizations. [Source]

Leaders of many mainstream Christian churches have condemned the sect for its teachings and heavy-handed recruitment methods. Wu Chi-wai, general secretary of the Hong Kong Church Renewal Movement, said he had heard stories from mainland Chinese pastors who said that Almighty God members sometimes kidnap or lure adherents from other churches by inviting them to religious seminars.

“It is not accepted by traditional churches, including the Protestant and Catholic churches, because it doesn’t let people accept Jesus Christ,” he said in a telephone interview on Wednesday from Hong Kong, where the group is allowed to proselytize. “They claim they have a woman who is more successful than Jesus Christ.”

Still, some Chinese religious leaders worry that campaigns against heterodox groups will spill over and affect congregations that are doctrinally mainstream but unsanctioned by the Communist Party, which seeks to manage all religious activity. Wang Yukai, the pastor of a so-called house church in the eastern city of Dalian, which operates outside the party’s apparatus, said government pressure on his and other congregations had been increasing in recent months. He noted that the authorities in the wealthy Zhejiang Province have ordered the demolition of several churches since March and have called for others to remove crosses, in what many believers say is an effort to tamp down Christianity’s growing influence.

“Chinese government officials who don’t understand religion and Christianity might mistake Allmighty God as something related to real Christianity,” Mr. Wang said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “Normal Christian churches don’t violate the law, so the government needs to find an excuse.” [Source]

China and the Vatican are preparing to resume a long-stalled dialogue as changes of leadership on both sides have created an opportunity for communication, people close to the Roman Catholic Church said.

But the recent mass demolition of churches – both Catholic and Protestant – in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and the election of a state-sanctioned bishop in Chengdu, Sichuan, make it doubtful the two sides can bridge major differences, the two people said.

“The atmosphere is quite positive for both sides to restart the dialogue now,” a person close to the Holy See said, highlighting hopes generated by the relatively new leadership in both the Vatican and Beijing. […] [Source]

Catholicism and Protestantism are two of the five nationally recognized religions in officially atheist China. Catholic churches in China, however, are not permitted to be affiliated with Roman Catholic Church, and Protestant churches are likewise forbidden from being linked to overseas religious organizations. Practitioner frustration with the CCP-sanctioned organizations claiming to represent their religion have allowed a “house church” movement to flourish in recent decades.

[…] American parochial schools from Westchester County to Washington State are becoming magnets for the offspring of Chinese real estate tycoons, energy executives and government officials. The schools are aggressively recruiting them, flying admissions officers to China, hiring agencies to produce glossy brochures in Chinese, and putting up web pages with eye-catching photos of blond, tousled-haired students gamboling around with their beaming Chinese classmates.

The students, some of whom pay more than five times as much as local students, are infusing an international sensibility into these schools, and helping with their often-battered finances after many have suffered steep declines in enrollment.

Today at DePaul, 39 of the 625 students come from China. Besides courses like chemistry, European history, studio art and chorus, they also take theology, lead Christian service club meetings and attend monthly Mass, where they can approach the altar to receive a blessing from the priest during communion but cannot partake in the sacramental wafer because they are not baptized.

[…] Wealthy Chinese parents are not seeking out a Catholic education so much as an American one, to help prepare their children for college in the United States and to escape what many describe as a test-heavy, reductive educational system. Secular private schools have also been recruiting heavily in China in recent years. [Source]

Harrison argues for a broader view of Chinese people’s hopes and aspirations. She acknowledges that China has borrowed liberally from other cultures—her book, after all, is about a Catholic village—but writes that Christian ideas have not been Sinicized as much as many imagine. On the contrary, the first foreign conceptions that were adopted were the ones most acceptable to Chinese, and over time people strove to add foreign content, not subtract it. Thus ideas in China have tended more toward international norms, not Chinese versions of them. The trend is slow—frustratingly so for many who argue that China over the past decade has moved further away from international standards, especially in the field of human rights, or even economic regulation. But Harrison has a long view. […]

[…] Harrison’s deep familiarity with China allows her to see connections between her specific narrative and the bigger thread of how China has been confronted with the outside world for the past two centuries. More than most other books I’ve read on China in recent years, it’s one that rings true, and reinforces the long-term optimist’s view against Chinese exceptionalism, and for a country bound to international institutions and norms. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/02/christianity-chinese-exceptionalism/feed/0Canonizing Matteo Ricci: A Political Maneuver?http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/11/canonizing-matteo-ricci-political-maneuver/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/11/canonizing-matteo-ricci-political-maneuver/#commentsSun, 17 Nov 2013 01:47:33 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=165510Debra Bruno reports for The Atlantic that some are skeptical of the campaign to turn a founding figure of the Jesuit China mission, Matteo Ricci, into a saint:

Whether that process is positive or not depends on your point of view, says Wang Meixiu, a scholar of world religions at Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Catholics think the move is positive, but “those outside of the church—they might think differently,” she says. While the Chinese people have great respect for Ricci, “at this sensitive period of time in history, to have him beatified is another thing.”

Brockey wonders who is behind the push for sainthood. “I don’t know whose interest it serves to have his beatification,” he says. But anyone who reviewed the historic record would see that “the man was not a saint, no two ways about it,” as Brockey says.

R. Po-Chia Hsia, author of A Jesuit in the Forbidden City and a Professor of History at Penn State, agrees. “If he’s canonized, I’ll have to eat my words,” he says. Historian Jonathan Spence’s The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci describes scenes of Ricci shouting down Buddhist monks at dinner parties. And Ricci went to plenty of dinner parties, writes Spence. He called the Chinese “barbarians” in letters home to friends and observed that slavery might be one of God’s ways to eventually convert people to Christianity.[Source]

Bruno concludes, however, that: “Despite these shortcomings, beatification might be a fitting end for a man who defied expectations in life and in death. When Ricci died in 1610, Emperor Wanli ordered an imperial burial in Beijing, an honor no foreigner before him had been granted.”

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/11/canonizing-matteo-ricci-political-maneuver/feed/0“Enigmatic” Bishop of Shanghai Dieshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/04/enigmatic-bishop-of-shanghai-dies/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/04/enigmatic-bishop-of-shanghai-dies/#commentsTue, 30 Apr 2013 05:24:34 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=155262The controversial bishop of Shanghai’s state-run Catholic Church, Aloysius Jin Luxian, died on Saturday at age 96. Didi Kirsten Tatlow of The New York Times reports that hundreds of people attended his funeral on Monday, though there were notable absences:

Missing among the mourners, according to witnesses, were bishops from China’s state-run Catholic Church, which rejects the Vatican’s claim to lead all Catholics. The funeral of one of China’s most prominent prelates was a local Shanghai affair.

The political slight probably would not have surprised Bishop Jin, a Shanghai native who spent nearly three decades in jail, labor camps or other forms of detention for his faith. Arrested in 1955 as the atheist Chinese state swept away Christianity, and not fully freed until 1982, he walked a tightrope for the rest of his life, trying to balance the interests of Beijing and Rome. China and the Vatican have long feuded, but both recognized the prominent bishop, making him a deeply political figure.

Tatlow writes that “politics dogged Bishop Jin to the end,” as he walked a tightrope between the Chinese state and the Vatican, and she speculates that “a highly politicized dispute” over his successor may explain the no-show of bishops at his funeral. The Associated Press has more on the unsettled state of the Shanghai church:

Jin’s first anointed successor as acting bishop, Joseph Xing Wenzhi, resigned last year for reasons still unclear, and his replacement, Thaddeus Ma Daqin, was placed under house arrest at Shanghai’s Sheshan Seminary after enraging party officials by renouncing his membership in the party-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association.

…

Jin served on the official advisory body to China’s rubber-stamp parliament as well as the Patriotic Assn., making him a frequent target of critics who argued he was too cooperative with the authorities.

He acknowledged those complaints in a 2005 interview with the Associated Press, saying he hoped the appointment of his successor would heal the rift between the official church and the semi-clandestine one that defies party control. The two disagree most sharply over the appointment of bishops, and it remains unclear whether the Vatican and Beijing will be able to forge a consensus on a new Shanghai bishop.

Whether or not one agreed with his methods and accommodations, there’s no denying his tangible, even quantifiable, accomplishments on behalf of the nation’s Catholics. Of these, the one that most impressed the Vatican over the years (according to two individuals in close contact with the Holy See on China issues) are the 407 priests who’ve been trained at Shanghai’s government-authorized and run Sheshan Seminary since it re-opened in 1982. Of these priests, at least 12 are Vatican-recognized bishops (and seven others who haven’t been recognized, or have unresolved statuses). The irony, as Jin pointed out to me several times, is that the Vatican had ordered him not to run the seminary, but rather wait until the Communists fell. “What if I had walked away from the seminary?” He asked me in 2007. “I would have been pure, but then who would train the priests? The government? Or should we do as the Chinese Catholics in exile demand and wait for the Communists to fall?”

…

Jin’s legacy in Shanghai is uncertain. His chosen successor as bishop, Xing Wenzhi, reportedly resigned in December 2011 and has not spoken publicly of his reasons. The next successor, Thaddeus Ma Daqin, publicly renounced the Catholic Patriotic Association, a government-run Catholic oversight organization, at his ordination, and has been confined to the seminary ever since. Nonetheless, Jin’s legacy in China, as represented by the hundreds of priests and the 12 bishops he educated, the liturgy he spurred, and the Bibles he published, runs far deeper and longer than what he may or may not have left behind in his beloved home city. It is, rather, a legacy of hard-earned, and hard-to-uproot religious freedom under a Communist Party that’s never expressed an interest in fostering any.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/04/enigmatic-bishop-of-shanghai-dies/feed/0Beijing Cautions New Pope on Meddling in Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/beijing-cautions-new-pope-on-meddling-in-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/beijing-cautions-new-pope-on-meddling-in-china/#commentsThu, 14 Mar 2013 21:52:43 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=152880The relationship between Beijing and the Vatican is a tense one. While the Vatican has been criticized by China for its ties to Taiwan, Beijing’s “illicit ordination” of Catholic bishops has been a cause for concern in the Roman Catholic church. China is home to an estimated 12 million Roman Catholics, many of whom choose to worship in secrecy, uncomfortable with the state-founded Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA) – the body established to oversee church-related activities in China. Last year, Thaddeus Ma Daqin was placed under house arrest after being ordained as bishop by the Vatican and quitting the CPCA.

China congratulated Pope Francis on Thursday on his ascension to the papacy, but also warned the Vatican not to interfere in what China deems to be its internal affairs.

[…]Hua Chunying, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that Beijing hoped the pope, who was elected on Wednesday, would work with Chinese officials on improving relations. But, she said, the Vatican “must stop interfering in China’s internal affairs, including in the name of religion.”

She also said the Vatican must sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan before ties with Beijing improve. China considers Taiwan a renegade province that is part of its territory.

China’s constitution enshrines freedom of religion, but stability-obsessed leaders in the officially atheist government are wary of the appeal of a higher moral power.

The Vatican has previously condemned what it called “external pressures and constrictions” on Chinese Catholics, and the government has detained Vatican-appointed bishops who split from the Catholic Patriotic Association.

Chinese Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin, ordained by the Vatican, has been held under house arrest at the Sheshan seminary in Shanghai since July after he announced that he was leaving the association.

The Vatican had refused to recognize China’s ordination to the state-run Church of Reverend Joseph Yue Fusheng, complaining he had not been blessed by the pope.

Catholic activists say other bishops have gone missing or have to contend with house arrest and surveillance.

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/03/beijing-cautions-new-pope-on-meddling-in-china/feed/1Shock and Acceptance Over Pope’s Resignationhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/02/shock-and-acceptance-over-popes-resignation/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/02/shock-and-acceptance-over-popes-resignation/#commentsWed, 13 Feb 2013 21:46:25 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=151391News of the surprise resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has made its way to China, where relations between the government-sanctioned Catholic Church and the Vatican have long been strained. According to a post by the New York Times’ Didi Kirsten Tatlow, the initial reaction has been muted and sympathetic:

One priest’s reaction was accepting — even approving.

“I’m open-minded. You can retire as Pope,” said Father Yan, in a telephone interview from a Chinese province. (He can only be identified by his last name since speaking out about Roman Catholicism is politically sensitive in China.)

“When God makes us old, he doesn’t want us to work,” Father Yan said.

“People haven’t really talked about it here. It’s a sensitive issue because of relations, but it won’t impact on relations. The state church will accept it. You change a Pope and things go on for the state church,” he said. “But I think it’s very good to retire. It’s O.K. He’s old.”

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/02/shock-and-acceptance-over-popes-resignation/feed/0In China, Tensions Between Church and Governmenthttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/07/in-china-tensions-between-church-government/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/07/in-china-tensions-between-church-government/#commentsMon, 16 Jul 2012 19:34:14 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=139960In the officially atheist nation, Chinese clergy often find themselves struggling between an intrusive government and their occupation. As an ongoing battle between Beijing and the Vatican heats up, political pressure on believers is becoming more intense. From Andrew Jacobs at the New York Times:

“If a Red Guard puts a knife to your throat and tells you to renounce your faith, what should you do?” he asked the five dozen initiates, all of them weeks away from baptism. After an awkward silence, Father Liu blurted out the answer: “Never give it up,” he said, his eyes widening for effect. “Your devotion should be to God above all else.”

Such sentiments might be a mainstay of Christian belief but they border on treasonous in China, an officially atheist state that demands fealty to the Communist Party. The pope might be a ranking minister, but according to the party’s thinking, President Hu Jintao is Catholicism’s supreme leader, at least here in China.

[…] Such pressures have been rising as Beijing and the Vatican engage in an increasingly combative struggle over the appointment of bishops. After several years of quiet negotiation and a tacit agreement to jointly name Chinese bishops, the Patriotic Association has since 2010 consecrated four bishops over the Vatican’s objections, including Joseph Yue Fusheng, who was ordained Friday in the northern city of Harbin.

Another obstacle for clergy to spread their faith is that many Chinese people know little about any religion, a legacy of government control over mass media. From the same New York Times article:

“Most Chinese people have no idea what Christianity is,” Father Liu said, looking rumpled after a particularly hectic weekend. “They’ll come here to get married, and then go off to a Buddhist temple.”